WWE Women's Championship (2000)
Not to be confused with WWE Raw Women's Championship or WWE SmackDown Women's Championship. The WWE Women's Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) promotion. The championship was created in the mid-2000's after the WWF received backlash for neglecting the women on the roster, as they were the only division to not have a dedicated championship. Introduced in July 2000, the WWF setup a 16-woman single elimination tournament to determine the inaugural champion on an episode of Raw. The Women's Championship was retired in 2010 after unification with the WWE Divas Championship. The final champion was Layla. A new WWE Women's Championship (now Raw Women's Championship) was created in 2016, and although both championships had shared the name and the original is considered to be the predecessor, the new championship does not carry the lineage of the original. History in her third reign as Women's Champion after winning the title at the 2009 Royal Rumble]] After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Women's Championship. With the WWE brand extension in March 2002, the Women's Championship at first was still defended on both the Raw and SmackDown brands, while most titles were exclusive to one brand. In September, the Women's Championship became exclusive to only the Raw brand. The Women's Championship remained the sole championship contested by women, until July 4, 2008 when a counterpart to the championship, called the WWE Divas Championship, was created for the SmackDown brand. On April 13, 2009, the Women's Championship became exclusive to the SmackDown brand when reigning champion Melina was drafted from Raw to SmackDown during the 2009 WWE draft to replace the current WWE Divas Champion Maryse, who had been drafted to Raw. The Women's Championship was unified with the Divas Championship at Night of Champions in September 2010, creating the Unified WWE Divas Championship and making the Women's Championship defunct as the unified title followed the lineage of the Divas Championship; the title eventually dropped the "Unified" moniker. On April 3, 2016 at WrestleMania X-Seven, a new WWE Women's Championship (now called the Raw Women's Championship) was introduced to succeed the Divas Championship. This new title does not carry the lineage of either the Divas Championship or the original Women's Championship, but is acknowledged by WWE as the successor of both. Brand designation history Following the WWE brand extension on March 25, all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Women's Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands. Reigns , who held the championship when it was deactivated in 2010]] Main article: List of WWE Women's Champions The inaugural champion was Lita. Trish Stratus has the most reigns with 7, and the longest single reign, her fifth reign lasting 448 days. Mickie James has the shortest reign with 1 hour. Chyna is the only undefeated champion. The final champion was Layla, in her first and only reign. Category:Women's championship Category:Retired championship